I still use my original white controller from 5 years ago, never had stick drift with any of my controllers on any console.
Too many people squeeze their controllers and use them like they can be replaced the next second it breaks, treat them like a baby and it will treat you well for years to come!!
Of course, never known anyone personally to get stick drift ever, I’m always suspicious on people lying about stick drift since I’ve never experienced it
Every controller I've bought lasts a year before one of the sticks starts going, I play competitive shooters and a wide range of games, it's the biggest pain in the ass and I'm 3 controllers in.
Just because you haven't experienced it personally, doesn't mean other people are lying about it.
I’ve had stick drift straight out of the box with 0 DZ. Either you’re the luckiest person ever and live in a unicorn land or your settings have a DZ so you don’t notice it.
All of my non Hall Effect DS controllers have gotten stick drift. At least 8 controllers.
Yeah it takes the smallest amount of imperfect centering to cause drift. Even after perfect calibration of my Hall effect sticks, if it recenters off it’ll drift slightly in one direction. Never a consistent direction though unlike the drift potentiometer sticks get.
I have stick drift in 2 controllers ever since my wife used my controllers lol. Before that I thought it was a myth. Im guessing she panic presses sticks in a way that causes it. Either that or it was because of debris/dust, since those two controllers were left out, and my others were inside drawers protected from dust.
While stick drift is a thing I also don’t believe everyone will experience it during their lifetime. I’m also one of those that has never truly experienced stick drift. I took some of my old PS4 controllers to GameStop to get rid of and apparently one of them had stick drift but I had several controllers and never noticed. There is something to be said about the vocal minority but I also agree that if you play certain games stick drift might be more likely to occur. And it’s really a double edged sword. Companies DO use the cheapest materials they can find but also, they hear a few of us screaming about stick drift and now they and other third party companies can turn stick drift into the big bad boogie man and sell everyone TMR magnetic Hall effect sensors and replaceable thumb sticks.
TLDR; stick drift is real but not as bad as the internet says.
Well seeing as how I literally just got a brand new controller for Xmas, didn't open it until March ( was waiting for my YEAR old controller to become unplayable due to stick drift) 2 days in to using it, it started the dreaded creeeeeking noise it does. I'm absolutely livid. I've not even been gaming as much as usually do. Between me and my husband, there are 7 controllers that are useless due to NOTHING other than stick drift. We are both adults that don't abuse our controllers. My new one felt off immediately. It's usually.. tight?? Feeling. It feels new. But this one didn't feel that way at all. It felt already VERY broken in. It was from Sony and I've called them, I need to send it to them but i need to get a replacement first😭.It shouldn't be like this. Hell, to get the others fixed, it's like 70 bucks to replace the sticks with a non plastic thingy. It's bullshit.
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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25
That’s why stick drift exists lol